UTEP football: 2 new assistant coaches offer experience, youth

Spencer Leftwich, left, and Andrew Browning have joined the football coaching staff for new UTEP head coach Sean Kugler. Leftwich will serve as assistant head coach and offensive line coach. Browning will coach the defensive line. (Ruben R. Ramirez / El Paso Times)

Sean Kugler's staff has backgrounds from all corners of America, with all levels of experience, who all arrived in El Paso in different ways.

The thread that binds the staff is Kugler himself, and so it was Wednesday when two more assistants were unveiled.

Spencer Leftwich, a 25-year coaching veteran, whose son Mack was a top quarterback for North Allegheny High in the Pittsburgh area, and Kugler's first recruit to UTEP, will be the new offensive line coach.

Kugler's son Robert was an all-state offensive lineman for North Allegheny, protecting Mack.

The defensive line coach will be Andrew Browning, a 2006 graduate of Boise State, who was a star defensive tackle of the undefeated Bronco team Kugler coached on. This will be Browning's first full-time job, as he spent the past three years at Boise State as a graduate assistant.

REPORTER

Bret Bloomquist

"You have to have a familiarity with people you coach with," Kugler said. "I'll be with these guys all the time. You have to trust them, they have to trust you. Familiarity is a big thing."

Kugler and Leftwich actually knew each other long before they cheered their sons at North Allegheny together.

Leftwich, who spent last year at Arizona as the tight ends coach and 2010 in the same office complex as Kugler as the offensive line coach with the University of Pittsburgh, coached at New Mexico State in 1992-93. Kugler coached against him in 1993 when he began his first coaching stint at UTEP.

"This is a great opportunity to come to a university where athletics are important, football is important, and to come to a place where I can work every day with Sean Kugler."

Advertisement

Leftwich coached tight ends last year, but is a career offensive line coach and will return to that position. Last year's Miner offensive line coach, Brian Natkin, will move to tight ends, the position where he was a UTEP All-American in 2000.

While he has never coached alongside Kugler, Leftwich brings a familiarity with Texas and UTEP in other ways. He coached against them as an offensive line coach at Tulsa from 2003 to 2006 and again in 2010, while he held the same position at North Texas from 1994 to 2002 and again from 2007 to 2009.

He will also get to reunite with his family, which he had to leave briefly when he took the Arizona job. His wife,LaTonne, stayed in the Pittsburgh area so Mack could finish out his senior year.

The 5-foot-11 Mack Leftwich was named the Pennsylvania Class 4A Player of the Year and committed to UTEP within days of Kugler's hire. LaTonne, Mack and their other two sons Cutter and Gage will move here as soon as Mack graduates.

Miner coaches are not allowed to comment on recruits until National Signing Day on Feb. 6.

"It's always neat when you can be with your family," said Spencer Leftwich, who is a 1998 graduate of Stephen F. Austin, where he began his coaching career. "It will be good to be back together."

Browning, meanwhile, was the type of player at Boise State that UTEP hopes to produce.

He initially walked on for the Broncos in 2003 before becoming a star and playing a key role in the Fiesta Bowl championship season. After graduating, he rejoined Boise State as a defensive quality control assistant in 2009-10, and then as a graduate assistant in 2011.

"Andrew Browning was one of the best offensive linemen in Boise State history, a lot of what we're looking for in our players," Kugler said. "He's a self-made player. He came to Boise State as a walk-on, but left not only as a starter, but all-conference."

He did that despite measuring just 6-1, 290 pounds (he weighs 215 now).

"Given my background, where I played, where I coached, size doesn't matter to me," Browning said. "I gravitate to guys who are smart, physical football players.

Whitten spent last year as the head coach at Arlington Heights High School, but was in the collegiate ranks for 23 years before that, including a stint at UTEP as running backs coach in 1994-95 when Kugler was here.

He was a head coach at Tarleton State, then Sam Houston State, from 2000-09 where he compiled a combined record of 70-51.

Jackson was the running backs coach at Purdue last year with UTEP's new offensive coordinator Patrick Higgins and former UTEP head coach Gary Nord.

The announcement of coaches will conclude Friday with retainees Natkin, linebackers coach Robert Rodriguez and secondary coach Gabe Franklin. Franklin was cornerbacks coach last year, but is adding safeties to those duties.

Director of football operations Nate Poss and strength and conditioning coach Kirk Davis have also been retained.

Bret Bloomquist may be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; 546-6359. Follow him on Twitter @bretbloomquist